This invention relates to mowing vehicles in general and particularly to such vehicles that are responsive to changes in terrain such that the vehicle body is maintained in a generally vertical orientation.
Mowing vehicles, such as riding lawn mowers and tractors with mowing attachments, have long been used in mowing hillsides, particularly by highway maintenance personnel. Most of these vehicles do not provide means for adapting to changing terrain, such that when a vehicle is on a slope the frame tilts accordingly, which can result in the vehicle tipping over. At the least, there is a dangerous situation, with operators sometimes leaning their bodies toward the upside of the hill in an effort to lower the center of gravity. Prior vehicles have often been adaptations of existing machines involving mechanical actuation of a mower blade assembly to conform to the slope, without significant modification of the vehicle frame such that the frame tilts with the slope. Such embodiments are limited in the degree of slope upon which they can be effectively and safely operated. Other devices have involved three- or four-wheeled vehicle frames with complex actuation of fixed deck blade housings.
Additionally, these complex machines have been expensive, which prohibits many small operators and municipalities from using them. The safety advantages of providing an arrangement whereby the operator always sits vertically even though he is mowing along a sloped embankment are obvious. Heretofore, there has not been a slope mower having a relatively simple leveling system for maintaining the vehicle frame in a vertical orientation, nor has there been such a vehicle having a blade housing arrangement for adapting to variances in the slope of the ground covered by the path of the mower.